Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Not everyone uses Google Reader; some people (a dying breed, perhaps) like to consume their RSS feeds locally, using a desktop feed reader. Firefox has long had a Live Bookmarks feature that gave it some of those "desktop feed reader" powers: Live Bookmarks understands RSS, and it can always show you a list of a website's most recent headlines.

RSS Live Links brings just that sort of functionality to Google Chrome, along with a nice extra feature: instant notifications.

Whenever one of the feeds you've subscribed to updates, you get a nice sound effect (a human voice going "Boing!"), the icon shakes, and an unread count appears. When you then click the icon, you can see a list of the unread items in each feed, and hover over them to see a preview. Naturally, clicking an item opens it in a new tab.

This is a powerful add-on; it has a very rich configuration interface, with no less than 20 different options (I counted!). You can also configure the color scheme, select one of several different notification sounds, and customize it in a myriad other ways. Slick!

The new plan is targeted squarely at the growing army of those that find physical media a thing of the past. Still, a difference of just $2 is a small price to pay for the option of unlimited DVDs.

In other news, Netflix has increased the price of its DVD-loaning plans, presumably to cover the growth of its streaming service. One-DVD-at-a-time now costs a dollar more ($9.99), with larger plans increasing by a similar percentage.

It's hardly a secret that the Galaxy S Android smartphones have had some, erm, problems when it comes to GPS location. For some of us, things have worked just fine. But far too many have had problems -- from slow to no GPS functionality. We've installed new ROMs. We've hacked our way to fixes. Now Samsung has released an app to undo anything we might have messed up in the process. GPSRestore does just what it says -- fixes any fixins' you might have fouled up.

Download links are after the break. Does it help? Let us know. [Samsung]

If you weren't aware, it's impossible to take screenshots with Windows Phone 7. Perhaps once it's rooted we'll be able to -- but until then, screenshotting apps for reviews is laborious -- you have to take a photo of the screen -- and the quality is inevitably low.

So, looking for an alternative, I decided to do a video review of Office for Windows Phone 7. It's about 10 minutes long, and the video quality is excellent. You should be able to clearly see the text on the screen, and the audio commentary should be informative (and perhaps even funny).

In the video I step through the three key features of Office for WP7: OneNote (and its integration with SkyDrive); Word and Excel (viewing and editing); and SharePoint integration (though I sadly couldn't get it to work). OneNote definitely stands out as one of WP7's killer features, especially when combined with SkyDrive synchronization. Word and Excel, which lack the ability to sync, seem rather useless in comparison -- but still, being able to view Word and Excel documents on the move is surely a good thing.

Whichever hemisphere the World Superbike riders choose to test, finding somewhere warm and dry remains an almost impossible task. While BMW, Suzuki and Honda shelter from the rain in Portugal, Aprilia and Yamaha are circulating in less than ideal conditions at Phillip Island in Australia. Though the track was dry, Max Biaggi described conditions as "like winter," according to GPOne.com.

Despite the cold, it was Biaggi who as the fastest on the first day of the test. The 2010 World Superbike champion tested the 2011 Ohlins forks (which he liked) and some Pirelli race tires (which it was too cold to make a judgement on), as well as working on the Aprilia RSV4's engine, now reduced to using chain-driven cams again, after the rule permitting the fitting of a gear drive for the overhead cams was changed, making them illegal again. Yamaha newcomer - and World Supersport runner up - Eugene Laverty was 2nd fastest, half a second off the Italian's time, and four tenths ahead of his new teammate, former MotoGP rider Marco Melandri. Biaggi's teammate Leon Camier brought up the rear of the field, just over a second slower than his Aprilia teammate.

Microsoft has offered up the first Internet Explorer 9 patch via Windows Update. KB2448827 is all about improving reliability and stability, and you should be able to find it on your Update screen by clicking through to view optional updates (or by navigating to Control Panel\System and Security\Windows Update\Select updates to install in Explorer). It's a little odd to see Microsoft do this -- they're typically not big on delivering patches to beta apps the way competitors like Google and Mozilla do. Perhaps there's a paradigm shift underway in Redmond.

If you're looking for some real IE9-related excitement, the recently-leaked Internet Explorer 9 beta 2 (which may, in fact, be an RC build) might be more up your alley. It's floating around the usual places you find 'community releases' of Microsoft apps.

Using the consummate magic of Facebook Connect (or Windows Live ID), users of Microsoft's game portals can now stay in touch with their friends while they play Bejeweled thanks to a 'casual games hub.'

From what I can see, this games hub takes the form of a 'dashboard' that wraps around each of the games, whether you play them on MSN Games, Bing or Live Messenger. Take a look at the screenshot above -- it's the only real way to explain how it works. You can now challenge your friends to games or see their high scores while you game. You can also see your News Feed -- pretty convenient if you're not the type that keeps Facebook open in a tab 24/7.

To accommodate all of these changes MSN Games has been completely overhauled. It's now rather beautiful! (Does anyone remember how it used to look back when it was called 'Zone'? Those were the days...) Oh, there's also a 30-second unskippable pre-roll video commercial before you can play each game -- is that new?

Live Messenger has also been updated, according to the screenshots at LiveSide. No one at Download Squad is seeing the changes yet, however -- but perhaps the patch will come tonight!

The FIM has just released an updated version of the 2011 World Superbike calendar, which includes the full schedule of WSBK and WSS, as well as the supporting Superstock series. The dates in the provisional calendar remain unchanged, but the circuits are now all confirmed, removing the last To Be Announced dates from the provisional calendar. As reported earlier, Donington makes a return on the WSBK schedule, with what looks likely to be a chilly European WSBK round in late March.

The other open question was the third Italian round of WSBK, with rumors suggesting that the series might make a return to the Vallelunga circuit near Rome, after Rome native Max Biaggi secured his first World Superbike title earlier this season. This is not to be, however, and WSBK will once again return to Imola for another year.

Elsewhere, the World Supersport class has been dropped from the US round at Miller Motorsports Park. Though the US round attracted a number of wildcard entries, they never included the top AMA Supersport riders, and as some of the smaller WSS teams complained about the cost of the Transatlantic expedition, the class has been quietly dropped from the schedule.

2012 is the year that everything will change. A bafflingly large number of people think this is because of the approach of Planet X, bringing destruction upon the world as foretold by the end of the Mayan calendar (which rather inconveniently now appears to end in 2220), but for motorcycle racing fans, something even more momentous than the end of civilization is on the cards. For 2012 is the year that sees the return of 1000cc motorcycles to MotoGP.

Those who were hoping to see the return of the glorious RC211V and its soul-churning V5 bellow will be sorely disappointed, however. MotoGP may be allowing the return of the liter bikes, but a couple of significant rule changes mean that the face of the grid will be altered irrevocably. There'll be no more barking V5 Hondas, nor howling Aprilia RS3 Cubes, nor will the overly optimistic and sadly failed WCM Blata V6 project be revived. The rules have been written such that the bikes will have four cylinders, use a four-stroke combustion cycle, and are likely to come in well under 1000cc capacity.

The lack of diversity in MotoGP from 2012 onwards is down to the new rule package due to come into effect. So let us first take a look at the rules laid down for MotoGP, before going on to study the reasoning behind those rules, and the effects they will have on the grid.

Whichever hemisphere the World Superbike riders choose to test, finding somewhere warm and dry remains an almost impossible task. While BMW, Suzuki and Honda shelter from the rain in Portugal, Aprilia and Yamaha are circulating in less than ideal conditions at Phillip Island in Australia. Though the track was dry, Max Biaggi described conditions as "like winter," according to GPOne.com.

Despite the cold, it was Biaggi who as the fastest on the first day of the test. The 2010 World Superbike champion tested the 2011 Ohlins forks (which he liked) and some Pirelli race tires (which it was too cold to make a judgement on), as well as working on the Aprilia RSV4's engine, now reduced to using chain-driven cams again, after the rule permitting the fitting of a gear drive for the overhead cams was changed, making them illegal again. Yamaha newcomer - and World Supersport runner up - Eugene Laverty was 2nd fastest, half a second off the Italian's time, and four tenths ahead of his new teammate, former MotoGP rider Marco Melandri. Biaggi's teammate Leon Camier brought up the rear of the field, just over a second slower than his Aprilia teammate.

Lest you think blogger Long Zheng is all about Microsoft apps, our Australian friend has a keen eye on all kinds of bleeding-edge software. -- including Firefox 4. Today he noticed a change in the Firefox 4 nightly build -- sexier, semi-translucent alert dialogs, complete with a blur effect to obscure the webpage content in the background.

The new alerts fit well with Firefox 4's default Strata theme, and they definitely look nicer than those with the native Windows chrome. The blur effect is also a nice tweak, and it helps ensure your focus goes where it should when an alert box appears -- to the alert.

Download a nightly build of Firefox 4 to see the alerts in action. To test, just visit a page like this one and paste javascript:window.alert("Downloadsquad copypasta for testing shiny new Firefox 4 alerts") in your address bar and hit the enter key.

Yahoo! Messenger remains one of the most popular desktop IM clients around, and its users are now able to get a taste of what's coming in version 11. Like its biggest competition -- Windows Live Messenger -- Y! Messenger 11 is about creating a more current, social messaging app.

One of the biggest additions is Facebook chat support -- which works nicely, though former Squadder Brad Linder noted that Meebo thought I was offline. Twitter support has been added, and Messenger 11 also offers write-once-post-everywhere updates to Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo! Pulse. More social gaming options have been added, and will soon include Zynga's Mafia Wars and Fishville. Yahoo! Messenger 11 also allows multiple sign-ins, so you won't get disconnected from your desktop if you sign in on your mobile device. Windows 7 users can change status, send messages, and sign in and out via Messenger 11's jump list.

In his announcement, Yahoo's John Dunning also has some good news for Android users. Yahoo! Messenger for Android will be updated soon with better video chat support. Currently, only users with an EVO or MyTouch 4G can utilize the feature, but additional handset support is on the way.